Prosthetic dental devices are very often necessary to replace natural teeth which are lost due to infection, disease, or some type of trauma. The dental endosteal or endosseous implant utilized for this practice is surgically implanted within the patient's mandibular or maxillary alveolar bone. After the gum and bone from the implantation process has healed, the implant is fitted with a tooth-simulating prosthesis or crown.
However, current implants and their methods of implantation have a number of limitations and disadvantages. For instance, most dental implant procedures require the installation of implants which protrude out of the gum and are thus exposed. This results both in prolonged discomfort for the patient and the possibility of implant malformation or failure during the initial healing process. Protruding devices also subject the effected area to infection or gum disease. Current methods also employ dental implants which often are unstable or which do not efficiently and/or effectively tap into the bone, thus creating additional problems for patient and dentist. Moreover, the use of known dental implants and implant techniques require excessive dental hardware, resulting in a more time consuming process and greater expense. Significantly, the time period necessary to complete the dental implant implantation to finished crown procedure, including the allowance of an adequate healing period, is lengthy, usually at least six months.
In addition, while dental implants are commonly inserted into prepared jaw bone sites as a fixture for a dental crown, prosthetic dental bridge, or other dental appliance, known implants will not simulate the natural tooth, which is supported by its periodontal ligament, from occlusal forces. These three occlusal forces, apical-coronal, buccal-lingual, and mesial-distal, can press a tooth in a certain direction, thereby meeting resistance from the periodontal ligament. The stress generated around the tooth is distributed around and, in effect, cushions the tooth for maximum protection. There is thus little movement, termed micro-motion, of the tooth in its socket. However, there is no periodontal ligament around a dental implant, so the result is that there is no cushion protection.
Current implants and their installation methods utilize a surgical flap, a procedure which requires prolong discomfort for the patient and multiple sutures. Protruding devices also subject the effected area to infection or gum disease. Current methods also require many drilling sequences, with excessive dental hardware, in order to insert a given implant, depending on the implant's size and shape. Usually the drill is not much smaller than the size of the implant. For instance a 3.5 mm drill is suitable to fit a 3.6 mm or 3.7 mm dental implant. Clinically, in many cases, the width of bone is very small, e.g. 3-4 mm, so there are no additional size options for the suitable implant size which is needed, particularly when the patient is in discomfort, due to bone grafting and other procedures.